Akron, Ohio is a city
committed to fighting breast cancer. During 1998, under the leadership of
Mayor Donald Plusquellic, the City of Akron set out to work jointly with
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pink Ribbon
Project, housed in the Akron Health Department, to reach qualifying women
and get them screened for breast cancer.

City Role in Screening

U. S. Public Law 101-354, enacted
in 1990, enabled CDC and state health departments to form partnerships
to make screening tests for breast and cervical cancer available
to women who are low-income and underserved. Under this legislation,
states have the option of designating local health departments
to conduct screening and related services. Akron is the largest
city in its region. Accordingly, the Ohio State Health Department designated
the Akron Department of Public Health to set up screening, community-based
education, and outreach services to women in four counties -
- Summit, Stark, Portage, and Wayne. The CDC funds allow The Pink Ribbon Project
- - Akron. s outreach program - - to screen eligible women for
breast and cervical cancer if they meet certain requirements. Women must
be over 40, have little or no insurance and be within 200 percent of the
national poverty line. An individual woman may make as much as $16,100 and
qualify. In addition, for each dependent a woman has she may earn an
additional $5,600 and still qualify.

The Pink Ribbon Project
worked so well in attracting eligible women into the program that a
dilemma occurred. After an ample amount of publicity and outreach, too
many eligible women responded for the limited number of screening slots
within the Pink Ribbon Project. However, there was no problem with
availability and accessibility of medical facilities for screening. In the
greater Akron region, eleven hospitals provide a full range of medical
care. The city itself is noted for its unusually high degree of quality
health care, innovation, and professional staffs. Therefore, it was a
matter of finding more funds for the Pink Ribbon Project.

City Employees Respond

During the fall of 1997,
Mayor Plusquellic moved to alleviate the problem. Taking the lead from The
Mayors. Campaign Against Breast Cancer, Mayor Plusquellic designated three
separate Fridays as "Pink Ribbon Dress Down Days." This provided an
opportunity for City of Akron personnel to come to work in more casual
attire. Each employee paid a $3 fee each Friday for the privilege, and the
monies collected went directly to make screening accessible to more women
in the Pink Ribbon Project.

In all, $3,400 was raised,
and the funds were targeted at reaching minority women who were eligible,
but did not have transportation to get to the medical facilities for
screening. Free mammograms were offered to over 30 women who were
contacted through entities servicing minority populations. Agencies like
The International Institute, that works with new refugees, and inner-city
churches were given a unique opportunity to respond.

Accessibility was
emphasized. A mobile mammography unit was brought into a church
congregation, and prequalified women received screening right in their own
neighborhoods. To stretch funds and to provide complete breast exams,
medical students from the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of
Medicine performed the clinical breast exams before the actual mammogram
was given in the mobile unit. Additionally, the mobile

unit was parked outside
the first Akron City Hospital Minority Health Fair, and as over 3,000
people gathered for various screenings, the hospital provided female
physicians for clinical breast exams. Two more City of Akron Pink Ribbon
Days are currently in the planning stages for fiscal year 1998.

Findings and Future Plans

Akron, an All America
City, has a stable population of 223,621 people, with the median age of
33.4. The City of Akron Health Department noted that 44 Akronites died as
a direct result of breast cancer in 1996. Their ages ranged from 28 to
100.

With the incidence of
breast cancer increasing across the nation and rising with age, the City
of Akron is committed to finding the cancer before it claims another
citizen.

Through the combination of
outreach, screening, and education by The Pink Ribbon Project and the
continued generosity and support of Akron city employees, early detection
will be available to many more women, and lives will be saved. The City of
Akron is counting on it.